EXCERPT: “Walk through the downtown of any major U.S. city today and it may seem counterintuitive, in the midst of today’s building boom, that we have a housing shortage. In fact, we’re in the middle of an affordability crisis. According to the Urban Institute, for every 100 extremely low-income households in need of an affordable apartment, only 29 units are available, and researchers at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies found that 38.9 million households are cost-burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing. ‘The simple fact is, in booming economies, it’s faster to hire a software developer than build a new apartment building,’ says Kristin Siglin, senior vice president of policy at the Housing Partnership Network. The U.S. isn’t just short a few units, we’re falling woefully behind. A report by the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and National Apartment Association (NAA) suggest we need 4.6 million new units by 2030, and mayors across the country have made affordability a cornerstone of their campaigns. Experts and officials will, correctly, explain that the issue often comes down to cost: Affordable housing development often doesn’t add up, and without enough government subsidies and policy support, this important need goes unmet. ‘We do know what solutions and policies work,’ says Giselle Routhier, policy director of the Coalition for the Homeless. ‘We just need the political will to make it happen.’ But when city leadership, government leaders, and nonprofits get creative and get serious about solving the issues, solutions can take shape. Curbed spoke with experts from numerous housing organizations—Urban Institute, Housing Partnership Network, National Housing Conference, Coalition for the Homeless, and Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies—as well as authors and scholars such as Joel Kotkin, to identify some of the innovative solutions that cities, states, and nonprofits have turned to to help solve the affordability shortage, including inclusionary zoning, removing parking minimums, changing building codes to make it easier to rehab older buildings, and new funding models. Some are small-scale, and none offers an all-in-one solution to this enormous problem (‘There is no silver bullet,’ says Siglin). But in a time of tight budgets and expanding need, they showcase creative ways to solve one of today’s trickiest urban issues.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2uD5gyy

EXCERPT: “A series of low-income landlord lawsuits, started over a decade ago and alleging that St. Paul city housing codes had a discriminatory impact against minorities, is now officially dead. The three lawsuits, which started in 2004, accused the city of going to excessive lengths to condemn the properties of 16 landlords — a ‘code to the max’ strategy that the landlords said reduced the number of affordable housing units available to minorities. They claimed the result was a violation of, or had ‘disparate impact’ under, the federal Fair Housing Act. But following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that created a higher legal standard, the five remaining landlords who had stuck with the suit for over a decade dropped their claims. ‘We’re very pleased for the city, and I think this is the right result based on the current state of the law. And I think this will sharpen the focus for future claims like this,’ said Skip Durocher, the lead attorney with Dorsey & Whitney, which represented St. Paul pro bono. John Shoemaker, the Minneapolis-based attorney for the five remaining plaintiffs, who he said lost their properties over a decade ago, said, ‘They were 12 to 13 years in a federal court action against city hall, and they were never able to present their cases to a jury. And then the court changes the law that applies to something that happened 15 years ago? The fairness of that is questionable.'” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2eIMyle

EXCERPT: “For years, one of San Francisco’s worst public housing complexes sat just a stone’s throw from the home of one own of its most prominent citizens: Nancy Pelosi. Nestled in tony Inner Richmond, not far from the Presidio and Golden Gate Park, the low-slung building at 345 Arguello Street was a poster child for poorly maintained public housing. Roaches and rats had long since colonized the building, which was built in 1973, when the city was in the throes of its “Dirty Harry” era of drugs, crime and rock and roll. Leaks sprung from the ceiling. The water would often be shut off, seemingly at random. Only one of the property’s two elevators was functional, a serious problem in a building populated by seniors and disabled people, many of whom can’t walk without assistance. And the people who lived there were all but neglected by the city of San Francisco, whose management of the property can only be described as absentee. Today, things are quite a bit different at 345 Arguello. The decrepit apartments have been gutted, and the residents now have new kitchens, new floors, new windows and beautiful balconies. The infestations are over. No longer ignored, the residents now have access to services like backrubs and field trips. The building, freshly painted, looks fabulous from the outside as well. Indeed, the average passerby would have no idea that 345 Arguello even is public housing: Only a small placard next to the front door indicates that this is housing for the indigent, and not just another pricy Inner Richmond condo building. The 69-unit complex, like more than two-dozen others in the city, is emblematic of a new paradigm for managing public housing—one that may have profound consequences nationwide. Over the past few years, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the city of San Francisco has turned over all of its heretofore publicly owned housing—345 Arguello was one such building—to private property management companies and developers.” FULLSTORY: http://politi.co/2gQIwI4

EXCERPT: “In the 15 years that the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR) has tracked sales trends of Twin Cities homes, the median selling price has never crossed over a quarter of a million dollars. That changed in June, said David Arbit, director of research and economics at MAAR, when as the price for a home in the 13-county area hit $259,000 last month . . . A historically low number of housing options for sale has driven up prices of those on the market. With fewer homes on the market last June than any other summer month on record, Twin Cities buyers are bidding fast and high. The average home last month sold in 47 days, about 16 percent faster than a year ago. “Similarly, the median percent of original list price received at sale was 100 percent, meaning half of the sales closed for over list price,” MAAR added. Despite soaring prices, many homeowners are wary to put their houses up for sale given the fierce competition they’d face in finding a new home. As a result, new listings fell by half a percent in June compared to last year. Just under 12,500 homes remained for sale at the end of June, MAAR said. Taking current trends—and assuming no new listings were created—the metro area’s real estate market would bottom out in two-and-a-half months. Typically, realtors consider five to six months of supply to be a balanced market, according to MAAR.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2tg9omB

EXCERPT: “For many American millennials, buying a new home in a city like Los Angeles or Washington DC can seem like a pipe dream. According to a recent survey by Apartment List, 80% of millennials — defined as those born between 1980 and 1995 — say they want to buy a home, but most have less than $1,000 saved a for a down payment. Meanwhile, buying a house in America’s largest cities is more expensive now than ever. A severe housing shortage in LA, for example, has led over 400,000 households to spend more than half their income on housing. Fundrise, a housing management company based in DC, has developed a new investment platform, called the eFund, that aims to alleviate housing costs for young people. It’s sort of like crowdfunding for homes: Prospective homebuyers purchase shares (a minimum investment is 100 shares, currently $10 each), the sum of which funds housing renovations and new developments in their city. These investors then get notified through the “eFund Pool” about finished homes, which are offered at up to a 10% lower price than it would be if they were going through a broker. The eFund’s goal is to construct new housing in popular cities, and help young people find relatively affordable homes, Ben Miller, co-founder and CEO of Fundrise, told Business Insider.” FULLSTORY: http://read.bi/2uwp7l8

EXCERPT: “In the Twin Cities, well, we aren’t particularly well-known for urban density or suburban sprawl. Yet Minneapolis-St. Paul is one of only a few metro areas that became more dense, rather than more sprawling, since 2010. That’s according to a new analysis published recently in the New York Times’ The Upshot . . .In the Twin Cities, average Census tract density increased by 0.8 percent between 2010 and 2016. That’s less than the 3 percent rate in Seattle, the metro gaining the most density, and 1.2 percent in Chicago. But it outpaces cities like Austin (-5 percent) and San Antonio (-5.3 percent) which are actually getting less dense.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2uryxPm

EXCERPT: “While Millennials continue to compete for available housing inventory, which remains tight, Ellie Mae data showed that Millennials are attracted to more affordable real estate markets, particularly in the upper Midwest. According to data from the May Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker™, Hutchinson, Minn., Wahpeton, N.D.-Minn., Austin, Minn. and Williston, N.D. had the highest percentages of loans being made to Millennial borrowers . . . ‘Our data shows that Millennials are continuing to establish roots where housing is more affordable and there are increasingly more jobs,’ said Joe Tyrrell, executive vice president of corporate strategy for Ellie Mae. ‘While overall, less than half (48 percent) of Millennials who closed loans in May were single, in markets like Hutchinson, Minn., the majority of borrowers were single men. This suggests millennials may be embracing homeownership in these areas for reasons other than what we have historically seen, which was family formation.'” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2tJ0f8V

EXCERPT: “It took a year living with her parents for Amber Blakely to find her current three-bedroom rental in 2010. Rushed to find a new home, she’ll end up paying more for a two-bedroom house come August. ‘I’m a single mother, I have a stable job, I have a college degree, my kids are older and not infants,” said Blakely, 32. “The places I looked at were either expensive or complete slums that weren’t safe for children.’ Welcome to the Duluth rental market. With yearlong waiting lists for subsidized housing and a significant shortage of options for the working class, Duluth’s affordable-housing crunch is hitting residents of all backgrounds. ‘It’s not just about the traditional low-income household. It’s definitely a workforce issue here in Duluth,’ said Lee Stuart, executive director of housing advocate CHUM. ‘I know the lack of housing in Duluth for all income levels is hindering our city’s economic development.’ Despite low rents compared with the rest of the state and country, thousands of Duluthians like Blakely spend a third of their incomes or more on housing, Census data shows, and many are spending over half of their pay on rent.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2sImqsL

EXCERPT: “ABODO, an apartment listing company, analyzed the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas by population from the U.S. Census Bureau 2015 American Community Survey to find the highest and lowest percentage of all millennial householders who are owners. Home buying among adults ages 18 to 35 has slowed. In 2005, 39.5% of this age group owned homes. That share fell to 32.1% in 2015 . . . This trend might reverse. Recently, more millennials have been entering the home-buying market. Only time will tell if this trend will stick, but for now, here are the 10 cities millennials are buying homes — and the 10 where they aren’t.” FULLSTORY: https://yhoo.it/2thtTl6

EXCERPT: “A nonprofit group that advocates for senior citizens rallied Tuesday near the U.S. Capitol to protest proposed funding cuts in the federal budget for affordable housing for low-income elderly people. D.C.-based LeadingAge said the budget proposal does not provide enough assistance for homes under Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program. ‘What is occurring today in the budget talks is nothing short of ageism,’ said Stephen Fleming, chairman-elect of LeadingAge. ‘We are depleting the resources for older adults.’ President Trump’s 2018 budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) includes a 17 percent cut in investments for affordable housing and eliminates the Housing Trust Fund, which preserves and builds affordable homes for low-income people. The main objectives of the Save HUD 202 campaign include preventing the proposed cuts to Section 202, maintaining 100 percent funding for seniors served by affordable housing and expanding the funds to create more affordable houses for the elderly.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2tq1uuJ